Brussels, 29/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) is to provide funding for the setting in place of an “innovative (financial) instrument” aimed at mobilising investment to the benefit of Mediterranean small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), at the initiative of the IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), and the European Commission through the Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF). These organisations are working together and combining their resources “to provide funding for small and medium-sized enterprises in the Middle East and North Africa”, states the EIB on 24 May, underlining the interest of “risk-sharing” within the “Deauville Partnership”.
Philippe de Fontaine Vive, EIB Vice-President, said at a meeting last week in Amman (Jordan) that “economic growth led by private sector development remains the cornerstone of any equitable strategy and job creation in the region”. (FB/transl.jl)